According to a keen observer, Kensington Place is dead.

Kensington Place was a multi-use building planned for Washington Street, in the Combat Zone Chinatown.

From the Boston Redevelopment Authority website: 299 rental apartments (20% affordable), 334 parking spaces, 4,200 square feet of retail in a 30 story, 290′ building. Boylston Square improvements, access to lower level of China Trade Building, LaGrange Street widened Liberty Tree Park improvement and maintenance.

Critics were angry over the redevelopment of the site, for two reasons:

One, they were mad as hell that the city tore down the building that once housed the Gaiety Theater (yes, it’s a funny name).

Two, City Hall used its power of eminent domain to claim the property.

According to the Herald: “The Boston Redevelopment Authority shelled out $2.25 million in a settlement that paid for the Slipper’s old building and the cost of relocating to new digs, according to a spokeswoman. Kensington, in turn, reimbursed the BRA shortly after.”

Now, it’s open to discussion whether or not the Gaiety Theater deserved to be saved (I say, no), but, regardless, it’s a shame that everyone went to such effort to get the property redeveloped, yet is now going to be an empty lot for the foreseeable future.

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